Monthly Archives: January 2009

I am covering this topic for I think my children have lack of understanding of the importance of Islamic greeting in their daily life. I observe that sometimes they do not respond to a greeting, particularly Z or when they do, it was not a proper respond. But the best thing is, I am the one who learn the most when I visits all the hadith related to islamic greetings. Alhamdullilah.

Question
What do you say when you meet your friends yaani the muslim friends?
Do you say hi? Hello?

Why not from now on we all try to say ASSALAMMUALAIKUM when we meet our friends? I will try it too Insya Allah.

Listen to this ayah Al Anaam 6:54

And when those who believe in Our revelations come unto thee, say: Peace be unto you! Your Lord hath prescribed for Himself mercy, that whoso of you doeth evil through ignorance and repenteth afterward thereof and doeth right, (for him) lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (54)

Listen to this beautiful hadith

The book of Faith
Muslim :: Book 1 : Hadith 96

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace and blessing be upon him) observed: You shall not enter Paradise so long as you do not affirm belief (in all those things which are the articles of faith) and you will not believe as long as you do not love one another. Shall I direct you about a thing which if you do, will love one another? Greet one another.

spread the peace. That is what salam means..peace.

How the Salam began?

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 246

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, “Allah created Adam in his complete shape and form (directly), sixty cubits (about 30 meters) in height. When He created him, He said (to him), “Go and greet that group of angels sitting there, and listen what they will say in reply to you, for that will be your greeting and the greeting of your offspring.” Adam (went and) said, ‘As-Salamu alaikum (Peace be upon you).’ They replied, ‘AsSalamu-‘Alaika wa Rahmatullah (Peace and Allah’s Mercy be on you) So they increased ‘Wa Rahmatullah’ The Prophet added ‘So whoever will enter Paradise, will be of the shape and form of Adam. Since then the creation of Adam’s (offspring) (i.e. stature of human beings is being diminished continuously) to the present time.”

Exercise
Practice saying Asslammualaikum and Waalaikummussalam. Do it slowly and check whether they are pronouncing it right.

Greeting another Muslim is our duty.

Do you know that it is our duty to greet another Muslim? This is based on this hadith

Muslim :: Book 26 : Hadith 5379

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Six are the rights of a Muslim over another Muslim. It was said to him: Allah’s Messenger, what are these? Thereupon he said: When you meet him, offer him greetings;when he invites you to a feast accept it. when he seeks your council give him, and when he sneezes and says:” All praise is due to Allah,” you say Yarhamuk Allah (may Allah show mercy to you) ; and when he falls ill visit him; and when he dies follow his bier.

So do say salam to your friends.

You see when we greet our friends using the western greeting, we are rekindling friendship with them. When we ask how they are, we are showing concern about the, Which are all very good.

But when you give salam, not only will you be rekindling the friendship and brotherhood, but you are also praying for peace for your friend. And that will be rewarded by Allah, Insya Allah.

Exercise :
Write السلام عليكم in the arabic font

السلام عليكم means “May Peace be upon you”. Its’ a wonderful dua’ that we can give our brothers and sisters. Practice it often.

How do we return greetings?

Let’s look at this verse in the Quran first

An Nisaa’ 4:86
When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or (at least) return it equally. Certainly, Allâh is Ever a Careful Account Taker of all things.[] (86)

So if one says salam to you, you can chose to reply by saying

وعليكم السلام
(and peace be upon you)

or even better
وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله
(and peace and the mercy of Allah be upon you)

or the best reply is
وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركته
(and peace and the mercy of Allah and blessings be upon you)

(there are other ways to return the greetings, but these are the most common ways.

Giving Salam to people we don’t know

Now that you know that giving salam is a duty, I would like you to try giving salam to people you do not know too. (Even though I am not sure whether the children would have the confidence to do that. This one is mainly for myself. I am trying to give salam to people I don’t know. I am starting with the group of ladies in the lecture I attend to do but of whom I do not know. The ladies that I meet in the mussolla (after praying). When I enter the ladies’ waiting room. I will try Insya Allah)

Book of Asking Permission

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 253

Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr:

A man asked the Prophet, “What Islamic traits are the best?” The Prophet said, “Feed the people, and greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know.”

Some Manners on Giving Salam

There are some manners and ways for us to know on who should give greeting first.

Let’s read these hadiths.

The book of Asking Permission

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 252

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah’s Apostle said, “The younger person should greet the older one, and the walking person should greet the sitting one, and the small number of persons should greet the large number of persons.”

The book of Asking Permission

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 251

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah’s Apostle said, “The riding one should greet the walking one, and the walking one should greet the sitting one, and the small number of persons should greet the large number of persons.”

Let me summarise it here
1. Young people should greet the older ones first
2. The smaller group should greet the bigger ones.
3. When one enters a gathering, he should give the greeting
4. The person walking should greet the one sitting
5. The person riding should greet the person walking.

Having said that, it is recommended that we greet the little children first. Based on this hadith

Book of Asking Permission

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 264

Narrated Anas bin Malik:

that he passed by a group of boys and greeted them and said, “The Prophet used to do so.”

It is also recommended that when you meet people you know, besides giving a smile (smile is a sadaqah btw), we should shake hands too.

Book of Asking Permission

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 74 :: Hadith 279

Narrated Qatada:

I asked Anas, “Was it a custom of the companions of the Prophet to shake hands with one another?” He said, “Yes.”

S went to google the Assalamualaikum nasyid because she remembered I use to put this one up. Here it is.

We did a lapbook last school holiday. This sort of summarises what we have learned the last term. To be honest with you, this is coincidental. I didn’t really plan the syllabus to cover so much lessons on the shaytan (because I am still not good at that bigger planning for the syllabus. But it does give an idea of sort).

We covered the story of Prophet Adam and you can’t help to narrate the story of the arrogant shaytan there. Click the links below to read them

I included a summary of ammunition against shaytan. May we all be protected against Shaytan’s fitna. Click the link below to readAmmo against the shaytan

Even the subject on akhlaq about the manners of eating tells them them we must avoid shaytan’s way by not eating with left hand for example. Click the link below to readManners of Eating

We also covered lessons on Ayatul Kursi and Al Falaq and Annas. I have not written down the notes on Suratul Falaq and Suratun Nas. But I did write our work on Ayatul Kursi. Click the link below to read itAyatul Kursi Al Baqarah 2:255

So this lapbook became a good conclusion of this term’s lesson. It help them to refresh what they did. Insya Allah.

Anyway here it is, the lapbook : Against the Shaytan

We used mostly paper bags that we get when we purchased things from the store for the cover page.

And this is the contents when you flip the page and make it stand on its own

On the most left is a flip book which has Haziq’s and Sya’s version of the story of Shaytan.

Excerpt of H’s version

“All bowed, except Iblis. Allah then asked Iblis, “Why did you not bow down?” Iblis replies, “I am made of fire and he is made of stinky clay, so I shall not bow to him!”Allah then said,”Oh Iblis! Leave Jannah! Paradise is not for the arrogant!”

Excerpt of S’s version

A long time ago, there were planets and jannah and hell and lots of animals. Inside jannah there are angels. Allah told one good jin to go to Jannah. They lived and prayed to Allah.

One day a man called Adam was created. Allah told the angels and iblis to bow down. The angels bowed but Iblis did not. Allah asked, why didn’t you bow down? Because he is made of clay and I am made of fire! Iblis got kicked out of jannah. Iblis asked if he could live longer. Allah said yes. Iblis wants to disturb us and make us forget Allah.

In the middle page of the lapbbok, I used envelopes. In those envelopes are prove of verses of Quran that
1. Shaytan is arrogant
2. Shaytan doesn’t want us to be good.

Among the verse for “Shaytan is arrogant”Al Aaraf 7:11-13
11. It is We who created you and gave you shape; then we bade the angels to bow down to Adam and they bowed down; not so Iblis; he refused to be among those who bow down.

12. Allah said: ” What prevented thee from bowing down when I commanded thee? he said, “I am better than He : Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay.”

13. Allah said, “Get thee down from this: It is not for thee to be arrogant here. get out for thou are the meanest (of creatures).”

Other verses we included were
Al Hijr 15:28-33 and Al Sad 38: 71-76

Verses for “Shaytan doesn’t want us to be good

Al Aaraf 7:13-18

13. Allah said, “Get thee down from this: It is not for thee to be arrogant here. get out for thou are the meanest (of creatures).”

14. He said ;”Give me respite till the Day they are raised up.”

15. Allah said :’Be thou among those who have respite.”

16. He said: “because Thou hast thrown me out of the way. Lo! I will lie in wait for them on Thy straight way

17. “Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left : nor will Thou find in most of them gratitude (for Thy mercies)”

18 Allah said : “Get out from this disgraced and expelled. If any of them follow thee, hell will I fill with you all.”

Other verses

An Nisaa 4:118-121 A Israa 17:61-62 Al Sad 38:77-82

Then we remind each other to always ask for Allah’s forgiveness. To not be arrogant. To obey Allah. And to not listen to the temptation of shaytan.

On the third page we put up two flip books. The top one says “What is shaytan’s mission?” I was really expecting one answer i.e. to stray from Allah’s path. But the kids gave me so many version which I accepted all of them.

The black book is a summary of the possible ammunition that we can use in our struggle against shaytan.